The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement insists it is merely “pro-Palestinian” and not anti-Semitic. There is a mountain of evidence otherwise, but sometimes there is a clarifying moment as to how calls to boycott Israel have become mainstreamed.

Such a moment came on Twitter regarding India’s recent moves in Kashmir, which we covered in India Revokes Special Status for Muslim-Majority Kashmir, May Open Up Region to Hindu Immigration.

Legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich, in response to a claim that “India’s annexation of Kashmir is straight out of the Israeli playbook,” predicted that India would not get the Israel BDS treatment:

“If this is true, it is particularly notable that the reaction of @hrw @amnesty @un and progressives around the world will not be from their Israel playbook – boycotts of Indian universities, musicians who play in India etc”

And certainly that was a logical prediction. But BDS is not logical, it’s an irrational hatred of Israel because Israel is Jewish. We saw that recently when Ariel Gold, the National Co-Chair of Code Pink, tried to use the El Paso shooting against Israel:

This is yet another example of the “intersectionality” disease I have written about here many times: Israel becomes the unifying evil in the world which ties together all other evils, much like the “international Jew” was the unifying evil of classic anti-Semitism.

Enter David Klion, a far-left writer at places such as The Nation, The Guardian, and currently, Jewish Currents (where he is listed as News Editor). In 2018 Klion earned the headline The Nation Contributor Thrown in Twitter Jail After Doxxing Stephen Miller: ‘This is War’:

David Klion, a left wing journalist and contributor for The Nation found himself in Twitter jail for 12 hours after tweeting out Stephen Miller’s cell phone number. The writer said he obtained the number from Splinter, which doxxed the senior White House aide in this article.

Miller’s cell number was disconnected as of 4 p.m ET Wednesday when TheWrap tried to call.

In an interview with TheWrap, Klion — who has also written for the New York Times and The Guardian — said he had no regrets about his decision to employ the move, which many online view as a nuclear option.

“This is war,” said Klion. “I think that what is happening right now at the border is child abuse. It is systematic child abuse. It is racist child abuse. It is being carried out for cynical political purposes.”

Klion also said that Miller’s status as a high public official made him fair game in a way which was different from the many right-wing doxxing campaigns against journalists.

While I had heard of the Miller doxxing, Klion’s name was not familiar to me until his tweet about Kashmir showed up on my timeline. He tweeted that people who wanted to take action against what India is doing in Kashmir should boycott … wait for it … Israel:

“One good way to take action against what India is doing in Kashmir would be to boycott Israel, which is arming India and supports what India is doing in Kashmir….”

Researcher Nurit Baytch pointed out in response that Israel is a small player in supplying weapons to Israel, so why focus on Israel:

Russia supplied 58% of India’s arm imports, while Israel supplied 15%. If your 1st reaction to what Modi is doing in Kashmir is: “boycott the source of 15% of India’s arm imports,” the 1st question to ask: why are you so obsessed w/ that one minor player?

Klion says he’s not much of an Israel boycott supporter, which makes the call to boycott Israel over Kashmir worse, not better. It reflects how casually calling to boycott Israel over things having almost nothing to do with Israel has become an easy left-wing lay-up.

Prof. Kontorovich has been forced to recant his prediction:

“I stand corrected – progressive response to India’s “annexation” of Kashmir is exactly the same as their response to Israel: in both cases, calling for boycott of ISRAEL. totally consistent, and I shouldn’t have suspected otherwise.”